THE Green Gully Cavaliers are outright premiership favourites after shocking the Melbourne Knights with a blistering finish to Saturday's top-of-the-ladder blockbuster in front of a bumper crowd at Green Gully Reserve.

In a fight for top spot on the Victorian Foxtel Cup ladder, the home side found the back of the net twice in the dying minutes for a last-gasp 2-0 win.

Super substitute Koce Delev broke the deadlock in the 84th minute and Mile Medjedovic rubbed salt into the wounds of the Knights by adding another in the 88th minute.

Coach Ian Dobson lived up to his lofty reputation by masterminding the win.

He wasn't afraid to make changes to his starting line-up after it appeared the game was likely to finish in a scoreless draw.

'Dobbo' rolled the dice.

With some courage, too.

He replaced leading goalscorer Joel Nikolic with sub Delev in the 65th minute and experienced midfielder Andy Vargas with Aziz Behich in the 67th minute. Striker Mathew Sanders was swapped with Kristijan Ivesic in the 80th minute.

The moves gave the Cavs a considerable lift.

Throwing Delev into the thick of the action worked a treat as he proved lively before scoring the all-important first goal of the game, stunning the Knights.

Delev will be pumped.

He was desperate to impress after the Cavaliers coaxed him across from Altona Magic with his twin brother Kole.

The Cavaliers were determined to prove they could perform well without 2007 best and fairest winner Manny Muscat, who has been signed by Wellington Phoenix for the 2008-09 A-League season.

Club president Charles Farrugia is delighted for Muscat, but lamented the timing of his departure on the eve of the finals.

"We've got no worries about it. We're thrilled for Manny, he's hit the big time," he said.

"[It's] just the timing with the finals just around the corner. We can't do much about it. If we had said we didn't want to let Manny go until we complete all of our finals, they might not have taken him."